Prominent political scientist and analyst Mutahi Ngunyi has sparked anger among Kenyans for urging President William Ruto to show no mercy to Gen Z during the protests scheduled for Wednesday, June 25, 2025.

Ngunyi posted the tweet on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, just before the Gen Z Memorial March on June 25, seemingly to add fuel to an already growing fire.

This is because there is tension across the country, especially in Nairobi and other counties, where people are getting ready to protest, in remembrance of the victims of police brutality during the anti-finance bill protests in 2024.

This year, protesters are also demanding justice following the killing of teacher and blogger Albert Ojwang’ who died in police custody and the horrifying shooting of Boniface Kariuki.

Ngunyi noted that the president should “show them no mercy” because the protesters would not be merciful to him either.

“How is hanging Ruto at State House a peaceful protest? How is the murder of a constitutionally elected President a peaceful protest? Dear Ruto, You must show them no mercy because they will show you none. Maybe this is a political joke. But jokes are known to topple governments,” he wrote.

Many Kenyans expressed anger with what Ngunyi said because they expected the protests to be peaceful. 

Most netizens felt that Ngunyi was advising the Government to crackdown hard on the protesters which is an approach that they argued would only make things worse and not solve anything.

The public backlash has been very swift and negative on social media. Many have stated that protests are their legal right and they will exercise it to stop police violence and get justice.

Others have pointed out that the political analyst should remember the great pain of the families who have lost their loved ones to extrajudicial killings during protests.

In addition, they asked Mutahi Ngunyi to be understanding and stressed that the youth protests are a real way to display their grievances and not a danger to the government.